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You no longer are scared of your where you are and what’s expected of you, therefore, you let your guard down and aren’t true to the determined individual you used to be. You don’t even realize it’s happening, but time and routine have conned you into a false sense of security. As the saying goes, “it’s not over until it’s over,” so if you really think about it, don’t you want to stay strong throughout the entirety of an event? Putting your big guns down and staying neutral through an experience may seem tempting, but in this world, staying tough and trying your best from start to finish is what differentiates yourself from the crowd. It’s the humble ones who stay upbeat and true to their own diligence that ultimately get the most out of a situation. If you don’t have the staying power to finish what you started with a bang, then aren’t you merely a mediocre version of yourself? The question is, what does time teach us about how we deal with the beginning, middle, and end of an experience?

When you’re in the middle of something that you’ve been doing for a while, the first instinct is to feel comfortable with the routine. You know where you’re going, who you’re dealing with, and you start feeling a bit bolder in how you approach the situation. Stuff you were uncomfortable about at the beginning falls into place and you feel that you can even mix it up a bit, adding your own touch to what once was a learning experience. For example, if you walk to the same job every morning, maybe you take a different route one day once you know the area better. At first, you were just learning where you were going, but now that the daily routine is in place, there’s room for diversity and change.

One instance of clockwork that’s amused me for weeks is how the woman at Starbucks knows my order by heart and makes it even before I get to the front of the line. It’s impossible to change up your routine at that point, but it’s a welcome example of how staying predictable for weeks can cause a rapport with someone you don’t know personally. Over time, it’s possible that something you never expected to feel so natural can become apart of your daily consciousness; and while I’d never seen Starbucks as a particularly friendly vendor, having this understanding with the cashier has changed how I feel about routine. I’ve always gone against having too much of a routine, taking spontaneity as something that was a right, not a privilege. It can get boring ordering the same meal every morning, yet in the end, I’ve savored this summer’s routines as warm memories of a comfortable environment. Being a suburban-bred at heart, the feeling of a steady routine in a bustling city had it dawn on me that time really can change attitudes. As humans, we can slip into a rhythm easily as long as we have the music to guide us. Time and routine are closely connected – you need time in order to adjust to a routine and feel comfortable in new avenues. Once the comfort-factor happens, it’s only a matter of time before you feel a sense of balance. From then on, it’s your inner resilience which determines how you stay on top of your stride.

6 Ways To Push Yourself Mentally

Once you’ve almost surpassed the comfort stage, that’s when it usually dawns on you that it’s time to step it up. While there are those of us who never let their guard down, it’s very common to come up from a slump back to your full potential. Once the moment of clarity comes, that’s when the experience turns into a dwindling amount of time before the end. Nostalgia kicks in and stuff that used to be routine has turned into moments that should be cherished and remembered. The end of an event ends up becoming the beginning of reflection, which in turn teaches us the lessons that said experience has taught us. It depends on what this event was – a year of school, a job, a retreat, a time with friends or family – all of these have a beginning, middle, and end to the scenario that we eventually turn into a memory, good or bad, that’s attached to our lives forever. Isn’t it good to realize that while nothing lasts forever, the lessons and wisdom are what ends up being the important parts of our experiences?

Every time I’m nearing the end of an era, I always think of what’s happened, with fondness or deep-thought, trying to figure out what I’ve gained from the time I’ve had. I’ve always thought that everything happens for a reason – nothing in life is without meaning, whether it’s the start of an event or the finish line. We all are given lessons, no matter if we’re in the classroom or not and they’re always important. Sisters, go out into the world with the knowledge that everything has a purpose and that you just have to believe in what you’re doing in order to succeed. Never forget what you have learned from experience!

7 Ways To Preserve The Past While Embracing The Future

Chewing gum is banned in most schools, but new research is showing that it might actually HELP you or your kids do better during crunch time! Read the article below.

[From CNN Health]

If you’re looking to curb your appetite and improve your memory, you’re probably exercising, eating healthier foods and trying to get some sleep.

Those things are all good, but maybe you should try chomping on a stick of sugar-free gum.

At least that’s what research funded by the Wrigley Science Institute and being presented at the Experimental Biology 2009 meeting this week may have you think. The data are part of a growing body of research that is giving Americans more reasons to pop some gum in their mouths and chew away.

One line of research suggests that gum should no longer be treated as contraband in schools. This newest study indicates that chewing gum can lead to better academic performance.

Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine took 108 eighth-grade math students from a Houston, Texas, charter school and divided them into two groups, following them for 14 weeks. One group chewed gum while doing homework and during test-taking situations. The other group did not chew gum at all.

The results were surprising. The gum-chewing students had a 3 percent increase in their standardized math test scores compared with those who did not chew gum. Also, the students who chewed gum had better final grades compared with the non-chompers.

“Chewing gum is an easy tool students can use for a potential academic edge,” says Craig Johnston, Ph.D., the lead researcher and an instructor in nutrition at the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.

He also reports that teachers anecdotally found that students who chewed gum required fewer breaks, paid better attention and stayed quiet longer than those who did not.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Chewing gum is just one of 10 great alternatives to snacking, and here are 7 foods you should not ignore.

[From CNN.com]

Having a senior moment? A new study suggests that cutting calories may help.

Older adults who cut down on the amount of calories they consume get a two-for-one special: weight loss and better memory.

Healthy women ranging in age from 50 to 80 who reduced their calorie intake by 30 percent for three months not only lost weight, but their scores on verbal memory tests also shot up by 20 percent, according to a study conducted by Dr. Agnes Floel and her colleagues from the University of Munster in Germany, who published the results in the January issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The results seem pretty dramatic,” said Mark P. Mattson, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Bethesda, Maryland.

“Even though the number of subjects in the study was not really high, they had really high, statistically significant improvements in their performance on the memory test,” added Mattson, who studies caloric restriction and the brain in his role as chief of the Cellular and Molecular Neurosciences Section at the NIA’s Laboratory of Neurosciences. He was not involved in Floel’s investigation.

The study included 50 women, all of whom were either normal weight or slightly overweight. (The average body mass index was 28, which is about 175 pounds for a woman who is 5’6″.) Twenty were assigned to the calorie-cutting group, 20 upped their intake of unsaturated fatty acids (which some studies suggest may help aging brains), and the remaining 10 stuck with their normal diet.

Unlike the women who cut down on calories, the women who ate more unsaturated fatty acids showed no improvement in their memories, nor did those in the control group.

Why the improvement?

Find out by clicking here!

You’ve probably seen the commercials posing ginkgo biloba as a great natural herb to take for memory restoration, but recent studies have shown that it is actually an ineffective method for slowing the process of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

CNN.com reported the six-year study, which found that not only does ginkgo biloba fail in retarding the degeneration caused by the two illnesses, but is in fact not particularly beneficial to human health in any way. In other words, the pills you’ve been stocking up on in order to remember appointments and other small things might have been a waste of money the whole time. Perhaps those who sensed an increase in memory were psychologically  convinced that the herb had something to do with it – not a far-fetched theory, when you think about it.

To read the full article, click here.